The Miranda Encounter
by dare-to-do-our-duty
Summary: When Kirk and Company find the starship floating in the depths of space, the last thing they expected to find was a ship of dead men and one live woman. They didn't expect Kirk and Spock to get stranded on the dying ship either.
1. Chapter 1

It was a miracle that they had even found the ship in the swirling blackness of space. It was no pleasure cruiser, not with that heavy shield, but it was a model with minimum weaponry and it's distress beacon was of miniscule proportions, reaching only five kilometers into the vacuum.

"We're only reading the standard distress signal, Captain." Uhura spun towards the gold-clad figure. "Nothing else. There's also quite a bit of interference; we've traced it to the ship as well."

Kirk nodded from his chair in the center of the bridge. "Mr Spock?"

"Most of the ship is too heavily shielded for us to determine the number of life forms. I do not detect any in the non-shielded area, which I suspect is a transporter room."

There was a moment of silence as the small ship finally appeared in the distance, slowly approaching. It was small, much smaller than the colossal _Enterprise_ , and was drifting aimlessly, covered in asteroid pock marks where the shield did not extend. Visible through the miasma of gas and dust surrounding it were the words _USS Miranda._

"Anything, Lieutenant Uhura?" Kirk stood, striding in her direction.

"Nothing new, Sir. We're broadcasting our standard First Encounter signal."

The young Starfleet captain straightened and walked toward the door, straightening the hem of his uniform jacket.

"Mr Spock, you're with me. Standard security detail to transporter room one; have Dr McCoy prepared to beam over in the second round with another security team if we need them. Mr Sulu, you have the comm."

The pair of Commanding Officers swept out of the bridge and down the hall, meeting their red-shirted security team at the transporter room. Standing tall on the platform, the Captain looked at the technician. "Energize."

They beamed off the _Enterprise_ and into a graveyard. All three security men sucked in a breath at the carnage that surrounded them. Their Captain's face tightened, briefly masked by a layer of pain and anger before melting back into professionalism. "Spread out and search the area in a group. Be careful; we don't know what caused this." His eyes traced the bloody arm of an Ensign, hand clutching a huge knife that had apparently been used to kill his partner at the transporter controls before taking his own life.

Spock was kneeling by the body of the young man who had been murdered, tricorder in hand. "There are no signs of any traceable disease, Captain, nor any other observance. If his comrade had not stabbed him, he would still be living." The Vulcan stood in one fluid motion, still reading the results of his scan.

Kirk nodded. "Go," he said to his team. "Head toward the Medbay and Engineering; Commander Spock and I will take the Bridge and Science. It's not a big ship so it shouldn't take long. Report every five minutes." Something crunched loudly into the ship, sending the small craft swaying in the arms of space. "And hurry; I want to be off of here before we hit something big or something big hits us."

The team nodded their assent and hurried out the door. Kirk flipped open his communicator. "Kirk to _Enterprise."_ The link crackled and popped for a second, long enough for one of Spock's eyebrows to defy gravity, before Sulu's voice came across the signal.

"Sulu here, Captain. What is the situation?"

"There's something wrong." Kirk snapped crisply, moving out and the door and down the hallway towards the bridge just behind Spock. "Every crew member we've seen so far is dead," he stated, passing another trio sprawled lifelessly on the floor, like forgotten dolls. "We don't know why; there's nothing medically wrong with them. They've... all killed each other. And themselves."

Spock cleared the door, dragging away a man in science blues and allowing the sensor to read his presence. They strode onto the bridge, Kirk still conversing with the waiting _Enterprise._ "Start preparing a medical team; Doctor McCoy and three - no, four - others. If we find anyone, we're going to have to move them back to the transporter room to get them out through the shields, unless we can shut them off from the bridge." He surveyed the room, brain spinning and stomach lurching when he saw the other men in the room. Three in all; two in communications and navigation, respectively, and one, slumped by the front of the bridge, in commanding gold. They were all dead; his stomach heaved when he used a hand to check the pulse in the captain's neck, only to have his fingers sink into the silt throat.

"Estimated time of death, Mr Spock?" Kirk turned to his first officer who was kneeling yet again, this time by the communications officer, and running the scanner over him.

"I would say only a few hours, Captain," the Vulcan answered. "That would also account for the management of the ship and her shields, as well as the asteroid damage from several hours of directionless drifting."

Kirk nodded, lifting the communicator again. "Kirk to security."

"Thompson here, Captain."

"Any signs of life where you are?"

"Negative, Sir. Dead only; every crew member. All male, no signs of outside forces."

"Meet at the transporter room in five minutes, then. If there's nothing we can do, we'll have to leave it here and report it to the Federation." Even though he hated leaving the mystery unsolved, there was something unnerving about this ship of the dead, and he would be quietly glad to leave it.

Suddenly, a small gasp caught his attention. He turned, frowning at Spock, who looked at him, frowning in a most illogical manner. "You heard it too?" His First nodded, then tipped his head almost imperceptibly at one of the freestanding science stations. Quietly, Kirk walked towards it.

"Hello?" He realized how silently he was walking and made his footsteps purposefully louder. "Is there someone there?" A delicate hand peeked from behind the station, followed by a pair of green eyes. As soon as the eyes made contact with Kirk's own, the face visibly relaxed and more of the woman appeared.

"You're not from our ship..." She was cut off by another sharp gasp and she curled around her very pregnant stomach, still hidden behind the console. "Please... help me, Captain." Kirk was next to her before the sentence was out of her mouth, pushing aside scattered PADDs and bits of broken circuitry to kneel next to her. He gripped her hand as the contraction rode through her body, leaving her quietly panting. "Spock, call McCoy, tell him we're going to need a delivery room ready. We'll meet the security team in the transporter room and beam over right away."

Spock nodded and flipped open his communicator and nearly dropped it as the whole ship jolted violently, knocking him to the floor even with his impeccable Vulcan balance. Kirk pushed away a few PADDs threatening to fall off the table onto the woman and looked up in time to see the automatic pressure bulkheads locking down the bridge, indicating a breach outside that room. He yanked his own comm from his belt with his free hand. "Thompson! Beam up, now!"

"But Capta-" The man started to protest.

"NOW, Thompson, that's an order." He cut off the call. "Kirk to _Enterprise._ We have a young woman here trying to have a baby. Commander Spock and I have been sealed into the bridge by the bulkheads; there must be a leak in the hallway. Thompson and his team are beaming over; check them for any bugs and keep them on standby. We'll try to drop the shields so you can beam us over from the bridge; we're not going to make it back to the transporter room. Be prepared to beam up."

The comm crackled as another asteroid slammed into the small ship. Then Scotty's deep accent snaked through the static. "Aye, Captain, we hear you."

Kirk nodded and snapped the communicator closed. "Spock, start trying to find a way to drop the shields around the bridge. My guess is you'll need a good amount of code, since it's not going to recognize you in the system."

His First Officer nodded and began to examine several consoles on the bridge. Kirk's attention was pulled back to the young lady as she crushed his wrist in her grip, a contraction roaring through her.

Carefully, the Captain used his free hand to push away some of the debris and pulled the woman backwards until she was leaning against the side of the science console. Clearly, the baby was not going to wait until they could beam out of there and into the safe, sanitized medbay. He took a deep breath, considering the very personal nature of what he was going to have to do. "What's your name?" He asked softly, kneeling back down next to her and taking her hand again.

"Samantha." The young woman answered. "My husband is the Ambassador to Delta III."

The rest of her answer was knocked away by another contraction. Kirk rubbed her back, putting only a careful pressure into the fragile woman. "Human?" he asked as it ended.

"Yes. United States, San Fran, just outside the Starfleet base." She took a deep breath, rubbing the sweat off of her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. "I'm supposed to be meeting my husband on Delta; we were supposed to check in at Starbase VI eight hours ago. He's going to be worried."

Kirk nodded his understanding. "Yes, I'm sure he is. We'll do our best to get you out of here, though." He smiled, that charming smile that had disarmed so many hostile alien species and smoothed so many peace talks. "I'm Captain James Kirk. This is my First Officer, Commander Spock of Vulcan."

She held out a hand to shake. It trembled slightly as he took it, engulfing the petite fingers in his own hand. "What happened to your ship?"

"We- they- the crew... they beamed down to a planet, something Regulus, and didn't come back up, half of them. It was only a few days ago. Then, hours ago now, they... went mad. They started killing each other, and yelling and screaming about how they were already dead, all of them. I hid under here, since they weren't looking for anyone who wasn't in the open, and listened as they all died."

A single tear ran down her cheek and Kirk brushed it away with a gentle thumb. Another contraction sent a wave of tears after the first and again Kirk held her hand as the muscles in her abdomen spasmed. When she had settled and was breathing steadily again, Kirk offered a further smile.

"Well Miss Samantha, I'm not much of a doctor, but you'll have to make do with me for the time being. Commander Spock will get the shields around the bridge down and then we'll beam back to the _Enterprise_ where you can get some real medical care." Kirk looked around, locating his First. "Spock, any hyposprays of anything? And how are the shields?"

Spock straightened. "You were correct about the shields, Sir. It will take me three point nine four hours to override the coding. However, the ship should still be in a workable condition at that point in time; I do not believe we will lose either life support or experience a bridge breach, not with the strength of the bridge shields. I have not found any medical supplies."

Kirk nodded and turned to the young woman. "Do I have your permission to help?"

Samantha hesitated, then nodded her assent. Carefully, Kirk slid her skirt up her legs. There had been a session on childbirth in one of his mandatory Starfleet first aid and medical classes, but that was years ago. This was going to be tricky.

He found a small portable sterilization unit and cleaned his hands before hesitantly reaching to check how far along she was. "Nothing, yet. You're only a few centimeters."

She nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, Captain, how do you know how to do this?"

Kirk smiled, trying to project confidence. "All Starfleet cadets have to take mandatory first aid and medical classes, both human and basic xenobiology."

"And they covered _childbirth?_ " Samantha raised an eyebrow, something so reminiscent of Spock's face of incredulity that Kirk had to smother a laugh.

"Their goal is to train potential officers and all other members of the crew in what to do during drastic situations, where somebody needs medical attention and the Chief Medical Officer is not present." A thought hit him, and he sat up straight. "Damn. This is the first human baby we've come across in the whole five year voyage and I'm the one who's delivering it. Bones is going to kill me."

Samantha's eyebrow traveled even higher. Kirk couldn't resist. He raised his voice, making sure Spock couldn't miss hearing him. "Sure you're not related to any Vulcans, Sam? Because you've got the eyebrow raise mastered."

Sam snorted a laugh and Kirk turned to see his first officer giving him the same eyebrow-raised-glare behind him. There was a lull as another contraction rippled through the young woman, Kirk wincing sympathetically as the muscles tightened.

"Ow." She tipped her head back to rest on the console as the spasm finished. Spock called to Kirk from where he was intently working on hacking into the system using various Starfleet overrides.

"Sir, I believe we have a problem." The Vulcan tapped the small viewscreen in the counter. "I have shut off the rest of the ship, keeping us from wasting resources on unnecessary systems. However, having reevaluated the remaining resources, I do not believe we will have full life support for the duration of time needed to bring down the shields and beam over to the _Enterprise."_

 **Hey everyone! This whole thing is written and will be updated once a week. There are only three parts. Feedback is highly appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

Kirk winced. That was not good news. "In what order will the systems fail?

"Lights, consoles. I have diverted the channels to power only this console on the emergency power. Then heating systems, followed by oxygen filtration. With the size of the cabin and three occupants it will take approximately fourteen-point-four-three minutes for the oxygenation to drop dangerously low and another two minutes to become unsustainable for human life."

The Captain nodded and turned back to the floor as contraction hit the pregnant woman. "I'm going to try to find the emergency supplies. Hopefully, the baby will wait until we're out of here." He dropped his voice further. "And Spock, I know I don't need to tell you this, but if it comes down to it, the baby and the woman take precedence over both our lives."

His First Officer inclined his head. "Of course, Captain. Children are valued on Vulcan; I would not willingly allow one to perish." Spock turned back to his work.

Carefully keeping his balance as another rock struck the ship, Kirk made his way back to Samantha. "Sam, I have some bad news." He reached out and pushed her hair off of her forehead. "We're going to be cutting it close." He snorted. "As usual."

"What do you mean?"

"We should be out of here before life support goes down. But it's going to be tight. Spock's having to reprogram the computer, and it's a slow business. I'm going to look around for the emergency kit just in case, but we're at least going to lose lights and most console power before we get out of here."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Okay?" Kirk laughed. "That's all you have to say about that? Okay?"

She laughed with him, a lower, sweet laugh that made him smile. "I trust that two Officers from the flagship _Enterprise_ have a better chance of getting me out of here than anyone else."

He saluted her humorously. "We'll try, Ma'am." Standing, he moved some rubble away and looked around. "I'm going to search for that kit."

Three hours later, things were going downhill fast.

Kirk had searched the entirety of the small bridge, moving the bodies of the dead crew members so they laid respectfully side by side near the Captain's chair.

Kirk had also managed to find the emergency kit, but it had been kicked around by some dying crewmember as chaos had gripped the _Miranda._ Half the supplies had been scattered outside of the bulkhead door, which was now firmly closed against the vacuum of space. Despite his efforts, Kirk had only managed to salvage one small heated blanket, a half-liter sachet of water, an empty hypospray, and two oxygen masks.

Only two oxygen masks. Even worse, they were the old models, from some of the original starships, the type that made sharing a mask nearly impossible. They were flimsy and the more times they were taken off, the more rapidly they deteriorated, making them nearly useless.

The lights had gone off forty-three minutes ago, leaving the three stranded in the dim light of the console on which Spock was desperately working and a few emergency strips that were sealed onto the other stations and the Captain's chair.

The temperature had started dropping rapidly fifteen minutes later. Kirk had taken the blanket and wrapped it around Samantha, breaking the heating packs and starting their chemical reaction. He knew his First Officer had to be freezing, but Spock didn't complain, only hunched over the station and increased the speed of his flying fingers as their breath became visible and hung in the air around them.

Kirk knelt by Samantha as his First worked, teeth on edge as time wore on and the contractions forced moans and shrieks from the young woman. He rubbed her back, gave her water, and wished desperately that Bones was there.

As if reading his thoughts, Samantha spoke up between contractions. "Who's Bones?" She managed a smile at his surprised face. "You said earlier that he would kill you for being the person to deliver the baby."

Kirk laughed. "Bones is my CMO. We were friends back in the Academy; his real name is Leonard McCoy. Bones is a nickname; short for "sawbones" because he can do just about any medical thing the old-fashioned way, without technology, just like the old Earth doctors."

"Sounds nice." Samantha bit off a moan as another contraction hit. "And he'll kill you because..."

"Because he's an old-fashioned Georgia doc and actually _likes_ to do things like deliver babies, and he's going to jealous that _I'm_ the person who got to deliver a Terran baby in the middle of deep space." Kirk rolled his eyes. "That's Bones for you."

They were interrupted by Spock. "Oxygen filters are down, Captain."

Kirk internally swore a blue streak. "How close are we to getting the shields down?"

His First Officer was disturbingly white- the cold was leaching away his body temperature. Kirk probably didn't look much better, but at least he was more used to the cold temperatures than Spock.

"It will be close Captain." Despite his firm voice, a look at Spock's face, something in his eyes and his body language confirmed the contrary to Kirk; they weren't going to make it off before the oxygen levels became fatally low.

"Take the second oxygen mask, Mr Spock." Spock opened his mouth to argue.

Kirk's eyes flashed at his friend and fellow officer. "That was an order, Commander Spock. It is only _logical_ that you wear the mask, since you're working. Put it on and get us out of here."

Spock didn't argue, but Kirk could see his reluctance at leaving the Captain without a mask. The console was frosting over, and Spock was having to work increasingly hard to program the computer. His fingers were leaving damp patches in the frost as the air froze and melted around where he touched the controls. Leaving Spock to put on the second mask, Kirk snatched up the first and walked back to Samantha, sliding the fabricated material over her face and tightening the straps.

Carefully, he slid a hand under her skirt. He swore, out loud this time. "Sam, the baby's crowning. You're going to have to push. I know this isn't the ideal place to deliver, but you don't have a choice. Besides, I've heard of at least one baby born in space that turned out pretty well."

He smiled and stood to walk around to her other side and almost fell. The oxygen was getting dangerously low; small spots swam in front of his eyes, competing with the white of their breath hanging in the frigid air.

The baby was coming. "Spock, how long can you hold your breath?" Kirk called out, not bothering anymore to be subtle about the extreme effort it was going to take to keep them all alive.

Fortunately, Spock understood. "Just tell me when, Captain." Kirk nodded, kneeling again and waiting for the little black spots to recede. They did, but alarmingly slowly.

He could feel the top of the baby's head with one hand as Samantha crushed the other in her grip. "Push, Sam, push!" Kirk braced her feet on his thighs, wincing as she shoved against him. "Come on, the baby's almost here, you're doing great..."

He managed to free his hand from Samantha's grasp and roughly pulled his shirt off with one hand, exposing his skin to the frigid air in the tiny bridge. "Come on... come on..." Slowly, he supported the baby's head, guiding it into the dark room.

Samantha was sobbing through the filter mask, but pushed. Kirk caught the baby as it slid into the world and an instant later Spock was carefully placing his own oxygen mask over the tiny face and securing it with hands that were bone white and shaking from the cold. The First Officer hurried back to his station and frantically continued to type.

The baby's cry, slightly muffled by the mask, was the happiest sound Kirk had ever heard; as long as it was crying, it was alive.

Fumbling with stiff fingers, Kirk used a small pocketknife that he had disinfected to cut the umbilical cord, tying it off with a sterilized bit of the blanket. He slid the baby into his own shirt and wrapped him (for it was a him) tightly, handing him to his mother and standing to stagger, shirtless, over to Spock.

The Vulcan nodded at him, then at Kirk's communicator. Kirk staggered over to get it off the floor. "It has a sequence to cycle through; it will be down in ten minutes, exactly." The Vulcan took his hands off the controls and moved over to wait near Samantha, catlike despite the lack of oxygen and probable near-hypothermia.

Kirk flipped open the communicator, feeling his chest moving too fast as he tried to find air in a room that didn't have enough oxygen. "Kirk to _Enterprise._ "

"Sir! Can we -"

He cut them off. "Nine minutes and thirty seconds. Start trying now. Have a med team ready." His voice sounded strange in his ears and he could feel himself swaying, fighting the lack of oxygen. Spock stood to help him, but sat back down rapidly, his face even whiter as the world probably greyed out around him.

Kirk could see Samantha start to take off her mask, probably to give it to one of them. "No," he croaked. "Leave it on."

She nodded.

"Spock..." Kirk started towards his First with the intent of somehow warming him up, shared body heat and all, despite the fact that Kirk didn't have a shirt on and would probably do very little to help. The thermometer in the console beeped; they had dropped below negative ten degrees fahrenheit.

He didn't make it to where Spock was sitting, hunched over and conserving energy, trying to keep his delicate fingers warm. Two steps towards his friend, he pitched forwards to his knees, the world swimming, and heaving around him, his hands waving through the air as he attempted to find oxygen that didn't exist. Spock was blurry on the edge of his vision, having dragged himself off the deck to his suffocating Captain.

"You'll make it before you pass out?" Kirk whispered, chest heaving.

Spock nodded.

"Don't..." He sucked in a stale breath. "Don't let her take the mask off."

Spock nodded again.

Kirk slumped against the steps to the chair, the frigid raised metal and plastic biting into his back. "Good luck, Spock."

If he wasn't severely oxygen deprived and about to pass out, he would have sworn that Spock had smiled at him as he raised his hand in the Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, Captain."

Then the baby was crying again and Spock's hand was icy and dead on his bare shoulder and his ears were ringing and the world was fading in a burst of gold sparks...


	3. Chapter 3

When he woke up, he was choking.

A wash of panic rushed through him and he flailed against the bright lights all around him that were stabbing his eyes.

A dark shape was next to him in an instant, calling over the beeps and howls of medical sensors. "Jim! Jim, calm down, calm down, look at me, you're okay..."

Something warm clamped onto his hand and the voice got louder. "Computer, lights at half."

The room dimmed down, enough for Kirk to crack open his eyes again. Better, but there was something in his throat and he coughed and it _ached_ and he wanted to throw up and his head was pounding like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.

"Jim, look at me, look, we had to put in a breathing tube, you kept knocking off the mask. Hang on and I'll take it out." He nodded because he knew that voice; it was Bones and that meant he was not dead yet.

There was a sucking sensation as the tube was carefully pulled from his throat; he swallowed when it was halfway out and could feel his throat folding around the base of the synthesized plastic piping. It made him want to throw up, and when it was out he was heaving over the side of the bed but there was nothing in his stomach but bile.

"Hey, calm down, kid." Kirk closed his eyes for a moment and took several steadying breaths, trying to settle his roiling stomach and ward off the intense migraine that was threatening to rage over him.

And suddenly memories of what had happened on the ship, the _Miranda,_ returned and Kirk sat bolt upright, only to sway backwards as the world faded out slightly around him. "Spock?" he rasped, throat dry and aching from the tube and the bile and how much time he spent trying to breathe where there was no oxygen to have. "Sam and the baby?"

Bones pushed him back to the pillow and leaned forwards out of Kirk's line of sight, coming back in with an oxygen mask and a glass of water. He offered the cup to Kirk, snatching it back when another wave of dizziness washed over Kirk and he almost dropped the container onto the bed. The second time, he just held it to Kirk's lips and the captain didn't even care how humiliating it was that he couldn't even hold a glass of water because it felt so amazing, cooling the scorched muscles of his throat.

"They're all fine." Bones placed the cup back on the small table near the bed and started prepping the oxygen mask. "Spock's still in a warming field; he wasn't as hypoxic as you were, since he had the mask longer and since he has that durned Vulcan physiology. He was in the second stage of hypothermia, but he's responding well and he woke up a little bit ago long enough to inform me that keeping him in sickbay was illogical, then passed out when he tried to stand up." The doctor smiled. "Don't worry about Spock."

Kirk quirked an eyebrow over the edge of the mask Bones had just hooked on his lower face. Fortunately, Bones didn't need a more specific question.

"Miss Samantha and the baby are fine, too. You can go see them later." Bones stood, checking the readings on the biobed and pulling the blankets back up over Kirk's chest. "For now, you need to go back to sleep. You only had mild hypothermia, compared to Spock, and that's probably because you had to play the damned hero and take your shirt off. On the other hand, being human and not having the mask, you also were unconscious and hypoxic much longer than you should have been, you self-sacrificing idiot. You're probably going to have a headache off and on for ages. For now, all you can do is sleep it off."

Kirk nodded, eyes already drifting closed. He considered stubbornly fighting it, but couldn't see a good reason why. And besides, his head did hurt and the baby and her young mother and Spock were all okay, so he might as well go to sleep.

"Oh, and Jim?" Kirk just caught the end of Bone's phrase. "You did good, kid."

Then he was asleep.

When he woke up again, things were much better.

The oxygen mask was off and had been apparently removed some time ago, since he no longer had red lines imprinted into his skin where the plastic had pressed.

He was warmer.

His headache was gone.

And he was _starving._

Carefully he sat up, letting his blood pressure equalize as he moved. Let nobody say he didn't understand his limits; he just didn't pay attention to them. Sometimes.

A small "tsk" was heard from next to him and he turned to find Bones sitting in a chair next to his bed reading who-knew-what on a PADD, and wow, he must really be still out of it if he had missed Bones being there altogether.

"You're allowed to get up and get something to eat," the man himself said, without so much as a good morning. "But you have to take an oxygen mask and tank with you just in case."

Kirk wrinkled his nose, then raised his eyebrows. "A mask and tank? That's a little twenty-first century to walk around with, even for you, isn't it?"

Bones wouldn't meet his eyes, and the tone of the conversation dropped from teasing to depressing in the split second it took for Bones to look back up. "We're out of tri-ox cartridges for the hyposprays."

There was a moment. Kirk blinked. Clearly, there was some sort of hidden meaning there, but he was still a little fuzzy on the edges, so he wasn't getting it. "Ummm... why?"

"Because, you idiot, we used the rest of them on the ship's devil-may-care Captain and his ever-logical First Officer!" Bones glared at him, thick eyebrows furrowed over eyes that were filled with worry and frustration. "Don't you get it? You almost died. Again."

Kirk took a deep breath of the dry shipboard air and let it out. "But at least it was for a good reason, this time."

Bones cracked a smile, eyes crinkling even as he fought to hide it. "I still can't believe that you, not me, delivered a human baby in the middle of our five year mission, in deep space." He shoved Kirk's shoulder and stood. "If I wasn't busy worrying about all of you, I'd make you promise to let me deliver babies in the future."

Kirk laughed and stood slowly. "How are they, by the way?"

Bones tucked the PADD under his arm and rummaged in a small compartment in the bulkhead. "Fine. You can stop and see them after you eat. You'll probably run into Spock, too. He left a few minutes before you woke up, to check on the bridge and change clothing before eating." He handed Kirk a small portable oxygen mask with a tiny tank attached to pull pure oxygen from the air. "If you get dizzy, headache, whatever, use this. You're going to be pretty weird for a few days, so keep it on hand. Check back in before you go to sleep tonight and comm me if there's problems."

Kirk nodded and tucked it in his pocket, nodding to a few patients and Nurse Chapel as he carefully walked out of Medbay.

He smiled a little at the normalcy of everything, walking down the halls of the _Enterprise_ , past crewmembers who nodded politely at him. Thankfully nobody pointed out that he probably looked like crap, hair a disaster, wearing a Medbay shirt because he had never gotten his back after giving it to the baby.

His door slid open as he approached and he gratefully stripped off the old uniform, ducking into the sonic shower. Fifteen minutes later, a little lightheaded and with the beginnings of a headache but clean and wearing a new uniform, he walked out the door for the mess hall.

Spock was already there and stood in greeting when Kirk walked over with a tray of soup and half a dozen sandwiches. Kirk waved him down and began to eat, steadily munching his way through the pile of food. When he surfaced to breathe a few moments later, he finally took a good look at his First Officer.

He had the same little oxygen device that Kirk did, but looked like he would probably need it less. Otherwise, he looked no worse for the wear of their surprise course in obstetrics. "You good, Spock?" he felt inclined to ask between bites.

Spock quirked an eyebrow. "I am, as you say, Sir, good." Kirk nearly inhaled his spoon of soup at the mildly indignant expression, but nodded.

"Good to hear. Want to visit the baby with me after this?"

"I have already paid my regards to the infant and his mother."

Kirk nodded again. "See you on the bridge for Alpha shift, then. Send me your report from the incident and I'll include it in mine." He finished his last sandwich and stood, waiting for the wave of dizziness had concluded, then picked up his tray, catching Spock's eyebrow, which was further defying gravity and was almost hidden in the Vulcan's pristine haircut. "I'm fine, Spock, just a little dizzy still. And I have a headache, but I have to report back into Medbay later anyway. Don't worry about it."

Spock didn't say anything, but the eyebrow came down a little, so Kirk took that as a sign of acceptance. He took care of his tray and walked back towards Medbay until he arrived at the rooms that had been given to their temporary guests. Tapping a few times to signify his presence, the door slid open for him.

"Good afternoon." Kirk smiled at them, the bright room illuminating the only comfortable biobed that the entire ship possessed, currently holding the new mother and her child.

"Captain Kirk!" She looked pleased to see him, and probably would have gotten up, but Kirk waved her down just like he had Spock.

"Please, I'm sure you're tired."

Samantha laughed. "Every bit as tired as you are, I'm sure."

Kirk took a quick mental check of his internal diagnostics. Headache returning with a vengeance and probably approaching migraine proportions, still a little dizzy. But at least he wasn't nauseous anymore; throwing up everything he had eaten probably wouldn't have made a good second impression. "I sure hope not."

He took a chair next to the bed and smiled, trying to negate the worried expression that had appeared on her face when he had said that. "Don't worry, I'm not that bad." Hastily, Kirk tried to shift her attention. "How's the baby?"

Samantha's face lit up. "Beautiful. Doctor McCoy left you in one piece, I see, probably because you did a good job."

"Thank God. I've been in some bad situations since starfleet, but that was one I would rather not repeat."

There was a lull as both of them looked at the miracle baby. "He's fine then?"

"Perfectly normal. And a little angel for now, although I don't expect that to last."

"Have you named him yet?"

Samantha looked a little shy. "Not officially, but if Anthony agrees I thought we might call him Peter." She glanced up and back down. "Peter James Breuer."

The air left Kirk's lungs quietly at hearing his own name. It was an honor he had never been afforded. "Thank you."

Something in her eyes softened further as she looked at him. "No, Captain Kirk, thank you."

The conversation moved on, into pleasantries and her husband's work and some of the more exciting adventures of the _Enterprise_ , until his headache got too bad for him to keep acting normally. He excused himself and headed back to Medbay down the hall, sitting quietly as Bones swore at him for waiting so long and jabbed a trio of hyposprays into his neck.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Spock found Captain Kirk an hour later when he didn't appear on the bridge; holed up in his cabin with a migraine, lights off and in bed, albeit fully clothed. Having never been present when his Captain experienced a migraine before, Spock immediately called McCoy, then had a mild Vulcan panic attack (meaning he wouldn't hold still) until Kirk told him to sit down and shut up.

When McCoy broke into the room a moment later, the Vulcan had collected himself enough to fetch a cold washcloth from the bathroom for his Captain. Kirk was draped over the bed with his shoes off and his uniform on, washcloth over his eyes and lights at five percent.

McCoy gave him another dose of painkiller and forced the oxygen mask back over Kirk's unprotesting face and slipped the washcloth on his forehead. Kirk's eyes creased as the coolness slid over his face and fingers lightly touched his temples.

They were silent for nearly an hour, until Kirk was finally asleep and the two officers quietly left the room.

The _Enterprise_ arrived at the Delta system the next day, Starbase VI ready to receive them. The ship slid perfectly into the dock, clicking home with a faint hiss as the airlock activated. Ambassador Anthony Breuer was waiting at the door to the lock and was holding his wife and newborn son in his arms by the time Kirk was standing on the ground behind her.

And three days later, when the _Enterprise_ was sailing away from the Starbase, the small family could be seen in the window behind the ship, Samantha, Anthony, and little Peter James Breuer waving as the vessel slipped into the blackness of space.

 **STAR TREK! Love it!**

 **Read, review, and LLAP.**


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